<p>Hey
i was wondering if applying to Berkeley in a more obscure major will help chances for admission esp. for OOS students like me?
also..does berkeley let students change their majors after they are admitted?
thanks for any replys!</p>
<p>Intended major is NOT considered for the College of Letters & Sciences ("L&S"). It is a factor for the specialty schools such as engineering, Chem, etc.</p>
<p>Yes, you can change a major within a college, but it's more difficult to transfer from, say L&S to engineering.</p>
<p>Not sure about Berkeley, but in general they say don't put down an obscure major and expect it to help unless your transcript, activities, or personal history show some involvement with that subject. For example, if you say you want to major in Russian, and you spent last year in Russia at a language school and teaching Kayaking in the Caucasus -- that would be one thing. If you say you're majoring in Russian for no particular reason or because you liked Anna Karenina -- that's another thing.</p>
<p>You can say anything, and you can even mean it, but if it's something esoteric and it's not rooted in anything you've actually already done, it won't be a factor in the admission decision. Or so I've read. They've seen people trying to work every possible angle, and they know it when they see it.</p>
<p>All schools let you change your major. Or at least I've never heard of one that wouldn't.</p>